


when it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.

by LLReid



Category: Bloodbound (Visual Novels)
Genre: Best Friends, Canon LGBTQ Character, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, Families of Choice, Family Drama, Family Fluff, Female Friendship, Fluff, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Kamilah is basically Lily’s mum, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Female Character of Color, LGBTQ Themes, Same-Sex Marriage, This request made me laugh, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29388957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid
Summary: Inspired by; I’ll Be There For You by Chase Holfelder (Minor Key Version)~~~~“Please don’t be mad,” Lily said frantically, “but I got stoned and did something really bad. Like really, really bad and I need you—““What could you possibly have done that you haven’t already—““I put Gorilla Glue in my hair and my hair is stuck!,” Lily interjected. “I was laying my edges and one thing led to another— now my whole head is covered in glue and I don’t know what to do! I didn’t tell you sooner because you’d be mad but I’m freaking the fuck out and you gotta tell me how to fix this shit!”“I know I misheard you,” she deadpanned. “I know you did not put glue in your hair— tell me you did not put an industrial glue in your bloody hair, you foolish girl?!”“Kamilahhhhh,” Lily whined. “I ran out out of hair products! What else was I supposed to do?”“Not put glue in your hair! You were supposed to not put glue in your hair, you imbecile! What the hell were you thinking— and more importantly, what the hell do you expect me to do about it?!”
Relationships: Kamilah Sayeed/Anastasia Sayeed, Kamilah Sayeed/Main Character (Bloodbound)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 31





	when it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.

**Author's Note:**

> Instagram Prompt: Hear me out tho: Lily as ✨Gorilla Glue Girl✨

The sound of a phone ringing jolted Kamilah from sleep. It was an unwelcome disruption to what had been an otherwise perfectly peaceful night with her wife— and it became an especially unwelcome disruption the moment Anastasia began to stir in her arms. 

Waking her was one thing but waking her wife was unforgivable.

Only moments ago Anastasia had been sleeping peacefully. Softly, silently, in her arms, with the gentle huff of her breathing ruffling her senses, the seductive weight of her slender body stretched out against hers the subtlest and most sublime of all tortures. Whoever was on the other end of the phone deserved to meet her blades for ruining that.

Had people no shame?!

There was simply no other reason besides the world ending that a person should’ve had the audacity to call at such an ungodly hour. So the whole goddamn world better have been on fire if whoever dared call her expected to see another dawn.

Anastasia whimpered and buried her face in the pillow. “Make it stop.”

“It’s Lily,” she said groggily, sighing as she stared at the screen of her phone in complete and utter exasperation. “Lily Spencer,” she growled as she answered and put the phone on loud speaker so Anastasia could hear, “if this is not a life or death emergency, I swear on all that is holy—“

“I tried calling your goddamn wife 37 times but the dumb bitch’s phone has been on silent since 2009!,” the fool said as a means of greeting her. “Like, what in the fuck—“

“Lily,” she growled as she pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off a migraine. “It is very late and I am in no mood for this. Just tell me what it is that you want.”

“Please don’t be mad,” Lily said frantically, “but I got stoned and did something really bad. Like really, really bad and I need you—“

“What could you possibly have done that you haven’t already—“

“I put Gorilla Glue in my hair and my hair is stuck!,” Lily interjected. “I was laying my edges and one thing led to another— now my whole head is covered in glue and I don’t know what to do! I didn’t tell you sooner because you’d be mad but I’m freaking the fuck out and you gotta tell me how to fix this shit!”

Her jaw dropped and Anastasia started laughing so hysterically her entire body began to shake. At this point she was well used to her protégé doing utterly ridiculous things and then having to get her out of trouble... but this was a whole new league of stupid even by her standards.

What sort of sane individual put a glue made for bonding metals in their hair?!

“I know I misheard you,” she deadpanned. “I know you did not put glue in your hair— tell me you did not put an industrial glue in your bloody hair, you foolish girl?!”

“Kamilahhhhh,” Lily whined. “I ran out out of hair products! What else was I supposed to do?”

“Not put glue in your hair! You were supposed to not put glue in your hair, you imbecile! What the hell were you thinking— and more importantly, what the hell do you expect me to do about it?!”

“HELP ME,” she wailed down the phone. “This is not like the time I somehow wound up in that orgy for furries. Or the time I got stuck on the torch of Lady Liberty after the Pride Parade and simultaneously became a gay icon and a threat to national security. Or the time I crashed Adrian’s Ferrari into The United Nations building dressed like a T-rex on my way home from that Halloween party and they thought it was a terrorist incident. Or even the time I crashed into the guy dressed as Santa collecting charity donations while I was on my rollerblades because I thought I saw Honey Boo Boo and somehow knocked like five old age pensioners out at once and then it was reported as a hate crime in the news. This is really, really fucking serious! MY HAIR IS STUCK!”

She turned to Anastasia and could no longer contain her laughter. The very fact Anastasia was hysterically laughing was what set her off.

“Her hair really is stuck,” Serafine said, alerting them to her presence with Lily. “She called me before you and we’ve been trying to wash it out— now her head is starting to hurt. I’m at my wits end.”

She glanced at Anastasia, completely at a loss for what to say or do.

“You’re the scientist,” she said, throwing one hand up in exasperation as she handed her the phone. “Do science.”

“Do science, really?”

She shrugged. “You’re the one with the best chance of fixing it.”

“Have you tried acetone?,” Anastasia asked.

“Girl, we’ve tried everything and nothing is working.”

The Bloodkeeper sighed. “You’re going to need to come to Raines Corp so I can properly evaluate the problem— if I don’t have something in the labs that will dissolve the glue then I’ll have to play around with different chemicals. You’re also going to need to send me the ingredients of the glue so I can start thinking.” She paused. “Your hair is literally going to be fucked up after this— from the glue and the chemicals I’ll probably have to use to get it out. You know that, right?”

“What if you used your abilities and—“

“Lily, I have tried that already,” Serafine sighed. “You’ve used so much glue it will not budge.”

“If your hair is stuck down and the glue bonded to the strands then using my abilities will only rip it out at the roots,” Anastasia said gently. “You’ll be bald until it grows back if I do that, and it will hurt... a lot. Like the worst bikini wax of your whole life.”

Lily let out a pained groan and Serafine could be heard comforting her on the other end of the line.

“How soon can you be at Raines Corp?,” Serafine asked. “She’s really very distressed.”

“She’s distressed?!,” Kamilah grumbled. “I’m bloody distressed at having my perfectly adequate night’s sleep interrupted— is no one in this world sane anymore?!”

“Kami,” Anastasia sighed, placating her with a gentle hand on her cheek. “I’ll make my way there now. The night guards know you so you’ll be let in at the main entrance but you won’t be allowed to move from the lobby until I turn up— our new security protocol has only been in place for a week and everyone is still getting used to it.”

“Thank you!,” Lily sighed. “I‘ll bring you some special brownies as a thank you—“

“Lily Spencer, you will throw those damn brownies away right this moment or I will be sending you to a rehabilitation facility at the first available opportunity!,” she huffed. “They caused you to put Gorilla Glue in your hair. I really don’t think continuing to consume them is wise.”

Lily groaned loudly. “But they’re so good.”

“We will see you soon,” she sighed, not even bothering to argue further as Anastasia hung up.

“You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to, babe,” the younger woman said softly as she rubbed at her weary eyes. “It’s probably just going to be hours of me playing around with different solutions and trying to problem solve— Gorilla Glue is notoriously difficult to remove, especially if the acetone did nothing to help. You need to rest.”

Heaving a sigh, she gathered her wife into her arms and kissed her forehead. “I’ll come as your moral support. I’ll help in any way I can— besides, I don’t sleep well without you in my arms.”

“So you’re going to be my assistant for the night?,” Anastasia yawned.

“Indeed... and I shall be a far better assistant than Tyler.” She gently tickled her hair at the roots, pressing a kiss to her hairline. “It’s still snowing heavily, so we’ll have to walk.”

She cupped Anastasia’s chin and turned her face up to her. Those eyes were beautiful, even more so when her pupils glistened with happiness whenever she looked at her. 

“Have I told you today that I love you?,” Anastasia asked sleepily. 

“A few dozen times. Not that I mind.”

As a woman who’d been starved for love much of her life, she lapped up Anastasia’s generous outpouring of the words. She’d surprise her with them, catching her as she walked down the hall, pushing her up against a wall, breathing, “I love you.” Or she’d tickle her awake and tell her while she tried to hit her with a pillow. The best was when she lay against her in the dark, fingers tracing her body. She treasured her whispered, “I love you.”

“And I love you too,” Kamilah breathed. 

Anastasia whined and stretched out her limbs before rolling languidly across the bed in a half-hearted attempt to get up. “I’m cold already.”

A yawn caught in her throat before she could answer. She was already dreading setting foot outside, as the snow had not halted for days. Every road in the city was closed. The subways were off. No sensible person would ever leave their bed on a night like this one.

It only made matters worse that Anastasia was literally always cold. The walk to Raines Corp was bound to be uncomfortable for her, Kamilah thought as she pulled on her clothes... and that simply wouldn’t do.

That wouldn’t do at all.

“Kami,” Anastasia laughed as she took it upon herself to begin winding a huge scarf around her neck for her. “Is this really necessary?”

“Hush. I’m saving you from hypothermia.” She squinted, realising the air would still be able to make her cold with the way she’d secured the scarf. So, naturally, she took it off and began again. “You’re always cold. So much so, the winter is a very painful time for you. This is necessary.”

“I can’t see over the top of this thing. It’s literally bigger than me—“

“I’ll guide you,” she said whilst she pulled a knit hat with a fluffy pom-pom on the top onto her head. “How do you feel about your ski goggles?”

“Not great,” Anastasia huffed, her voice muffled behind her scarf. “And if you suggest ski pants next I’m filing for divorce.”

She snorted and kissed the slither of her forehead that was still visible between the end of her hat and her scarf. “I was actually going to suggest doubling up on gloves so your hands don’t get too cold.”

Anastasia pulled her scarf down so she could see and gave her a soft smile. “The snow won’t kill me, sweetheart— now come on, we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

She sighed as she stood back to take in the sight of her, all she wanted was to ensure she’d be able to face the cold and be as comfortable as possible. When it came to her, whatever the situation, there never was any question, no doubt in her mind as to what she should do. Her protection, her safety — caring for her. From the first instant she'd laid eyes on her all those years ago, that had been her mind's fixation. Its decision. Nothing had ever succeeded in altering that.

But as to the why of that, the reason behind her desire to keep her safe when she was perfectly capable of protecting herself... even now she didn't — and was quite certain and absolutely sure she didn't — need to consciously know.

The moment they stepped outside, the cold hit them like a ton of bricks and the blizzard made it damn near impossible to see more than a few feet in front of their faces. She was already cursing Lily and her foolishness by the time they’d reached the end of their block. 

She wished to go back to bed immediately.

Only moments ago she had been warm and cosy beneath the duvet with her wife in her arms. Now she may as well have been hiking to the bloody North Pole.

This was just for now, she reminded herself, for this strange moment out of their usual lives in which she and Anastasia were just two people finding ways to weather a difficult situation.

The sound of Anastasia’s heartbeat, steady and sure, blocked out any rustlings and calmed her down. 

They made it to Raines Corp in fifteen minutes and the night guards welcomed them in with beaming smiles, the way they always did. Serafine and Lily were caked in snow and sprawled out on one of the leather seating areas in the middle of the lobby— and they both looked very worse for wear.

Kamilah ground her teeth as they rose to their feet to greet them. 

“Well,” she said to Lily. “Lower your hood. Let us see what it is we’re dealing with.”

Lily glanced at Anastasia and the two of them started laughing before she’d even reached up to touch the pink faux-fur lined hood of her puffer jacket. 

“Oh my god, shut the fuck up,” Lily wheezed. “This shit ain’t funny!”

“It’s actually very funny and I’m laughing because you’re laughing— and because you’re a fucking idiot!” Anastasia practically doubled over from her laughter. “Why would you do something like this without me there to film it?!”

“Bitch, your phone is literally always on silent?! I could legit discover alien life on Mars faster than I could get ahold of you when a dumb idea like this pops into my head— and I feel like the Cynthia doll from Rugrats right now!”

“You’re probably going to look like Cynthia when I’m done with you, you dumbass!,” Anastasia laughed as she pushed the hood of her jacket down to reveal her hair was smoothed back into a low ponytail. Without hesitating for even a second Anastasia knocked on her head and the sound it elicited made it clear that the glue was rock solid— and that only made the laughing worse.

“Stoooop,” Lily giggled.

“It’s like a helmet!,” Anastasia laughed as she continued drumming on the top of her head.

“You really are the most foolish individual I have ever known,” she sighed as she reached forward to inspect the damage for herself. “You’re banned from using glue for the rest of your life— no, you’re banned from even thinking about using glue! This will not happen again.”

“Yeah.” Lily sighed heavily and hung her head before glancing up at Anastasia. “But seriously... you can fix this shit, right? I mean, of course you can fix this shit!”

Anastasia gave her head a sharp tug and narrowed her eyes as she inspected the problem up close. “I studied the ingredients list on the way here and— What’ve you tried to remove it? I need specifics.”

“Acetone. Rubbing alcohol. Glue dissolver. Medical grade glue dissolver. Like twelve different shampoos. Hot water. Cold water. Salt water. Baking soda. Vinegar. Coconut oil. Macadamia oil. Uh... that’s it,” Lily said. “None of it did anything.”

“Right,” Anastasia sighed as she gestured to them to follow her to the labs. “Um— okay.”

“You can fix it?,” Lily asked again.

“I can fix it... I just can’t promise you that your hair is going to survive the process,” Anastasia said sympathetically. “There’s every chance the glue has broken it at the roots and on the chance that it hasn’t, it will have caused irreparable damage to the strands— sort of like what using too much bleaching products on it will do.”

“Is there any chance that her hair will be perfectly fine underneath it?,” Serafine asked.

Anastasia sighed as she scanned her fingerprint and her eye to open the door that led into the long winding corridors lined with top secret laboratories. “No,” she said as she vigilantly watched the thick security door closing behind them. “What you need to understand is the chemical composition of Gorilla Glue is highly, highly toxic when applied to the human body. It’s made for metals, woods, and industrial plastics— really heavy duty things. And hair is far more delicate than most people realise. Coating the hair and scalp with a polymer not designed for human use will have completely prevented her scalp from functioning properly and will have destroyed hair fibers. The hardening of the polymer will have blocked out all moisture and oxygen required for proper cellular turnover.”

“What do you think my hair is gonna look like after this?,” Lily yelped.

“Honestly, Lil, I don’t know.”

Lily sighed loudly and stopped walking outside one of the labs, where a group of scientists were still working. All of them noticed Anastasia at once and gave her a wave and a thumbs up through the glass wall— a signal that she couldn’t even begin to decode. But despite the fact she may as well have been a queen down here in the labs, she was still the very same Anastasia she had known years ago when she’d worked here as an assistant, the one she'd decided without hesitation to marry. 

Even now in her position of power at Raines Corp she still had the same body of a goddess, a smile that melted her withered old heart, and sinful glint in her eyes was just for her and her alone. 

“What is going on in there?,” she prodded.

“That is one of our labs dedicated to biological research,” Anastasia said excitedly as she began ushering them further down the hall. “The project we’re working on right now is interested in the related challenges of understanding the origin of life on the early earth, and constructing synthetic cellular life in the laboratory.”

“Girl, I understood none of that,” Lily quipped.

Anastasia laughed lightly. “Okay, so, focusing on artificial life frees us to explore novel chemical systems, but what we learn from these systems helps us to understand possible pathways leading to the origin of life. Our basic design for a synthetic cell involves the encapsulation of a spontaneously replicating nucleic acid, which acts as the genetic material, within a spontaneously replicating membrane vesicle, which provides spatial localisation. We are using chemical synthesis to make nucleic acids with modified nucleobases and sugar-phosphate backbones.”

Lily began clapping her hands slowly. “I still understand none of that but it sounds complicated as fuck, which means it’s dope and you’re gonna get another one of those Nobel Prize thingys. Congrats.”

Anastasia sighed wistfully as she once again scanned her eye and fingerprint at the door of one of the laboratories. 

“You all need to put on one of these hazmat suits and I need you not to touch anything in here,” she said as she tossed them all a white suit to put over their clothes. “I’m being completely serious, this lab is the most sensitive in the entire building. No one without at least ten years of experience and a thorough psychic evaluation is usually allowed in here— if anything gets on your skin, in your mouth, or in your eyes, you tell me immediately. If you start to feel dizzy, nauseous, or ill in any way, you tell me immediately. Or if you notice anyone else acting strange, you tell me immediately— the fumes can go for people sometimes. Am I clear?”

Kamilah cleared her throat as she zipped up her suit, exchanging anxious looks with Serafine and Lily. “What exactly do you keep in here, baby?”

“All of the chemicals kept in here are so highly toxic on their own that you’re put on at least five different government watch lists if you even enquire about buying them,” Anastasia said, levelling them all with a look that made it crystal clear she wasn’t exaggerating. “But when mixed together they can be neutralised, which is what I’m going to do. I have a solution in mind that will dissolve the glue... but you’ve used so much of it that we might have to do this in stages.”

“Stages?,” Lily echoed.

Anastasia nodded and passed them all a set of goggles. “It might hurt a little when I’m pouring it through your hair— it won’t be dangerous but that doesn’t mean your scalp is going to like it.”

“Girl, I don’t even care. Just get the damn glue off my goddamn head.”

Anastasia let out an acknowledging hum as she let them into the lab. All around them different experiments had been set up and were slowly bubbling away in glass beakers and vials. It really was like something out of a movie.

“You can pull up a stool and sit on the other side of this station,” Anastasia said, drawing to a stop at an empty station along the left hand side of the lab before quickly going about gathering the equipment she’d need. 

“What are the chances of this shit exploding?,” Lily asked.

“If you don’t know what you’re doing everything in this lab is basically a bomb,” Anastasia said absentmindedly. “Okay... uh... okay. I can do this... this is no big deal... I can do this.” She took a deep breath and cracked her knuckles. “Nobody distract me.”

Kamilah watched in awe as Anastasia got right to work. She didn’t have the slightest idea what she was doing or how she even knew what results mixing and boiling and doing god only knew what else to all these seemingly random chemicals would draw.

She moved around the lab with a ballerina’s grace. Confident in what she was doing. Never hesitating. Never halting. Each of her movements fluid and sure.

How the woman could do stuff like this with ease yet somehow set something on fire each and every time she tried to cook, she just didn’t know. One would assume such a gifted scientist would be able to handle the responsibility of making toast... but she couldn’t and it was much more comical than it should’ve been.

Like the strange abilities bound to her blood, the sort of science Anastasia dedicated herself to studying was like a lit stick of dynamite. It could light up a dark room or it could easily burn down a house — in the hands of the responsible scientist that she was it lit up the world but in the hands of a lesser scientist it would quite easily burn the whole world to ashes.

Anastasia was the type of woman who experimented day and night in her labs and was constantly concocting weird and wonderful new ideas, holidays were not even excepted. Her entire existence was made up of alternating periods of working and brainstorming in these secretive laboratories. It was both her hobby and her livelihood, so she could quite easily work herself to the point of a physical and psychic collapse— and she did so often. She’d forget to eat. She’d forget to sleep. All she saw was her work. 

Kamilah had no doubt that if Anastasia hadn’t met her and become a vampire — she had made it her life’s goal to see her safe, well, and preserved — she would’ve died tragically young due to the consequences of the sheer neglect she put herself through in the name of science on a regular basis. Her passion for her work was so great and uncontrollable that once she got going, nothing else mattered and she had to be reminded to take breaks.

“Okay, this should do it,” she breathed after close to two hours of non-stop action. In her hand she held a glass beaker filled almost to the rim with an odd looking cloudy liquid that the offensively bright artificial light in the room couldn’t permeate. “I’m going to brush this over your hair in thin layers and the glue should gradually dissolve. It will probably sting but the longer you can bear it without needing a break, the sooner the glue will be out of your hair.”

Lily took a deep breath and nodded resolutely as Anastasia walked around the bench. “What is it exactly?”

“A glue dissolver I just invented thats like five times the strength of the medical grade ones you’ve tried,” Anastasia said as simply as if she were discussing the weather. “You ready?”

Lily nodded nod she and Serafine both took her hands and held their breath as Anastasia began brushing the mixture over her scalp with what looked like some sort of paint brush. The moment it touched her head, Lily hissed and dug her nails deep into their hands.

“Motherfucker!,” her protégé cringed. “What the fuck— This is not normal—“

“Lil, I know it hurts but you need to try to keep your head still,” Anastasia said softly as she continued to work. “I don’t want this running down onto your face. If you can’t stay still you’ll have to lay down with your head in the sink.”

Lily grunted in response and screwed her eyes shut tight. 

“I’m never doing this shit again,” she winced. “Holy shit this fucking stings!”

Kamilah rolled her eyes and patted her hand reassuringly— that was as morally supportive as she had it in her to be at this self inflicted situation. 

“Is it working?,” Serafine asked.

“Mhm,” Anastasia hummed. “The glue is already beginning to dissolve.”

She narrowed her eyes and focused on what Anastasia was doing. The layers of glue were indeed beginning to flake away from Lily’s hair in chunks.

“How’s my hair looking?,” Lily prodded.

“Better than I thought, actually,” Anastasia said. “It’s not broken at the roots but it’s very dry.”

“Wash day is gonna be a pain in the ass, isn’t it?,” grumbled Lily.

“Is it not always?,” Serafine snorted. “I once procrastinated for seven hours on my own wash day— I loathe it that much.”

“I play the Star Wars soundtrack when I’m doing it and pretend I’m fighting an evil ass empire to make it bearable,” Lily shrugged. “Or the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Then I pretend I’m a pirate who’s married to Kiera Knightley— and I always just end up horny as fuck when I do that but it passes the time.” 

“You’re going to have to start deep conditioning it as soon as you get home,” Anastasia said. “I want you to avoid shampoos and all other products for a week or two and focus just on deep conditioning. You need to let your hair breathe for a bit.”

“I was gonna get braids on Friday!,” Lily pouted. “I was going for blue ones this time!”

“Wait a few weeks,” Anastasia responded, her gloved hand never stilling. “The fact that you’re not bald is absolutely baffling. You really don’t want to push your luck.”

“It looks like it’s working well,” Kamilah breathed, enraptured by the whole process.

Anastasia smiled at her. “It is— I might actually be able to market this solution. I’m sure the people over at Gorilla Glue would pay a lot of money for a dissolver that works on their products.”

“I probably deserve like 50% of the profits though,” smirked Lily. “You know, since it was my genius that inspired the creation of this shit.”

“The only thing you deserve is a nice long trip to the local funny farm,” she quipped. “Who the hell does something like this?!”

“My genius can’t be contained,” Lily smirked. Her wicked smirk very quickly became a pained grimace as Anastasia applied more of the solution to her scalp. “It takes a lot of work to wake up this fabulous everyday— and y’all should just be thankful I haven’t gone full Kanye and created a religious cult yet.”

She heaved an exhausted sigh. 

At this point in her life she deserved a god damn sainthood for putting up with this shit for years. 

Really, how the hell was it even possible for one person to be this bothersome? To get themselves into this much trouble? 

She was not pleased or in any way amused by one moment of this.

Watching Anastasia work seemed to calm her down some, though. As when she looked at her, she still forgot everything else. She lost all track of what she was saying or doing. She could see only her eyes and the beauty she’d been seeking all her life. Her existence was dark, grim, full of struggle, until her. She was the light that pushed the darkness away. When she was with her — even now — she could see her way, and she could breathe again.

Though she was calm, she didn’t even crack a smile when Lily managed to sit through the whole of the solution being applied to her head in one sitting. Or when Anastasia rinsed it all off for her with warm water in the sink— her poor Annie was exhausted if the dark circles beneath her eyes were anything to go by.

“Can I go home to bed now?,” Anastasia yawned as she took off the protective suit over her clothes. “Nobody else is going to get themselves into so much trouble I’ll need to invent something to get them out of it?”

“No promises,” Lily beamed. “I was thinking about backtracking and doing it again for Tik Tok—“

“I will stab you,” she interjected, her voice a tired growl. 

“Damn, who shit in your Cheerios? I think you need a brownie, Sugar Mama Sayeed. It’ll chill you the fuck out.”

“For God's sake!" Everyone stared at her, including Anastasia. "Do I have to be made a mockery of in my own wife’s place of work?"

Lily smirked at her, the biggest shit eating smirk she’d ever seen. "Would you prefer I made a mockery of you in the street? In Central Park, maybe? In the middle of Times Square? The bar by your pool?"

She threw her hands up in sheer exasperation. “Unbelievable! I have had it up to here with you, Lily Spencer—“

She was cut off by a packet of gummy bears hitting her slap-bang in the face and before she could even remember that she wanted to draw her blades, she tore into it and began eating. It was like flipping a switch.

They were cherry flavoured ones after all... and she was rather partial to the cherry flavoured ones.

“What just happened?,” Serafine chuckled.

Anastasia simply shrugged. “I call it Gummy Bear Therapy— it’s ideal for anger management.”

“So you just... throw gummy bears at her face when she’s about to cut a bitch?,” snorted Lily. “Damn. The power— can I have one?”

“Touch my gummy bears and I’ll kill you,” she deadpanned with her mouth full, sending everyone into a fit of laughter. “Annie, my love, let us leave before this imbecile winds up impaled on my blades.”

Anastasia giggled as she rubbed at her weary eyes. “Yes. Please. Take me home to bed, I’m begging you.”

Kamilah did just that.

She took her wife by the hand and held her close the whole way home, even though they were both practically asleep on their feet and trudging through the thick blanket of fresh snow was a tedious workout.

“We’re sleeping in,” Anastasia yawned the moment they’d crossed the threshold into their bedroom and began unceremoniously tossing their clothes on the ground. “I’m so tired and cold that even the joints in my fingers hurt.”

“Indeed,” she said, catching her yawn. “I’m not moving from that bed any time soon— my phone has now been silenced, too.”

Anastasia flopped down on the mattress first and Kamilah very quickly followed, climbing under the covers and drawing her into her embrace with a kiss on her forehead for good measure.

The Bloodkeeper yawned again, but this time so deeply that her eyes started to water a little. “You’re so warm...”

“If you don’t keep those cold feet away from me there will be trouble,” she laughed wearily as Anastasia’s icy toes tickled at her shins. 

How bizarre it was that this woman was light and life. She was heat personified, and yet, she was so damn cold to the touch.

“But you’re so warm, Kami.”

“I won’t be for much longer if you don’t keep those feet to yourself.” She used one of her own to playfully nudge Anastasia’s out of the way beneath the blankets, but she stubbornly put them right back. “It should not be possible for one to be this cold— put socks on!”

“People who sleep with socks on scare me,” Anastasia murmured, her accent thickening as she began to zone out. “It’s like people who can sleep wearing long pants or with the heater in their room on full or with their bedroom door open— you either do those things or you’re normal.”

“At first I found your inability to sleep with pants on confusing,” she murmured as she tickled at the coppery hair framing her temple as Anastasia nuzzled her. “But now I simply appreciate the view.”

The sleepy smile, the look, on Anastasia’s face tugged at her heart. Even in the fleeting glance before her eyelids shut, she'd seen great love in her eyes. That look was a way to tell her sweet nothings that no one else could understand. Private thoughts, shared wordlessly between two wives.

“You’re... such a pervert,” Anastasia muttered affectionately after a long moment.

“Yes, indeed, but I’m your pervert.” She closed her own eyes slowly, then added, “And I love you dearly.”

“Men seni süyemin,” Anastasia whispered to her in Kazakh. “Sleep well, Kami.”

~ fin.


End file.
